The Post-PC World

You won’t get the desktop out from under my desk until you pry it from my desk’s cold, dead hands, but:

Worldwide personal-computer shipments may decline by a steeper-than-forecast 6.1 percent this year as demand weakens in emerging markets, researcher IDC said.

PC unit sales are projected to fall for a third straight year to 295.9 million from 315.1 million in 2013, IDC said today in a statement. The researcher, which in January predicted a 3.8 percent drop in 2014 and growth of less than 1 percent in 2015, now estimates the declines will persist through 2018.

On a second reading though, I have to wonder how much of that emerging market weakness is due to increased use of tablets and smartphones, and how much of the weakness might be due to emerging markets’ increasing weakness.